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Islamophobic Think Tank Helped Prosectors Write Terror Indictment Against ICE Protesters

The far-right Center for Security Policy, led by anti-Muslim activist Frank Gaffney, is best known for pedaling conspiracy theories.

A researcher at a far-right think tank helped Justice Department prosecutors craft their indictment for terror charges against an alleged “north Texas antifa cell,” the researcher testified Monday. The charges were brought in relation to a protest outside a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center outside Dallas.

Kyle Shideler of the Center for Security Policy said under questioning from a defense attorney that he provided language that prosecutors used in the first-ever domestic terrorism case against a purported antifa cell.

The decision to use the language was the government’s, Shideler said.

“I told them what I believed to be an accurate definition of antifa, and they used it,” Shideler said.

The courtroom testimony provided a window into the extraordinarily close cooperation between federal prosecutors and a Washington advocacy group that has regularly argued for government action against left-wing activists.

Shideler himself was the author of a September article titled “How to Dismantle Far-Left Extremist Networks: A Roadmap for the Trump Administration” that called on the Justice Department to take more aggressive action against left-of-center activists. He said he conferred with prosecutors in October, a month before they obtained an indictment in the Texas case.

How Many Members Does Antifa Have? Where Is Its Headquarters? The FBI Has No Answers.

Defense lawyers raised questions about Shideler’s professional home, the Center for Security Policy. The nonprofit think tank was founded by Frank Gaffney, a former Defense Department official under President Ronald Reagan who has routinely been described as an Islamophobic conspiracy theorist. Gaffney’s views on Islam are commonly espoused at Center for Security Policy events.

The center itself has been branded a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, a designation Shideler bristled at in court.

“Yes sir, the Southern Poverty Law Center has mislabeled many people as a hate group,” he said in response to questioning from defense lawyer Phillip Hayes.

The nine defendants on trial this month face years or life sentences in prison for a noise demonstration outside ICE’s Prairieland Detention Center on July 4 of last year.

Texas “Antifa Cell” Terror Trial Takes On Tough Questions About Guns at Protests Against ICE

After demonstrators used fireworks in a show of solidarity for the detainees held inside the Alvarado, Texas, facility, local police arrived to confront them. One of the responding officers was shot in the neck.

Shideler testified as an expert witness for the government over the objections of defense attorneys, who were overruled by U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman, a Donald Trump appointee.

In lengthy testimony, he provided a recounting of the history of antifascist organizing that ranged from 1930s Germany to 1980s U.K. activism to the present-day United States. Various tactics used by the Prairieland demonstrators to protect their identities — such as Signal chats, “black block” clothing, and a general “security culture” — were all consistent with antifa practices, Shideler said.

Under questioning from prosecutors, Shideler sought to tie the ideas laid out in anarchist zines recovered from the defendants’ possession with their actions outside the detention center.

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Several cooperating defendants have testified that they did not consider themselves members of antifa, defense attorneys pointed out during cross-examination.

They also went on the attack over Shideler’s professional qualifications and his conclusions. Shideler acknowledged that he does not use academic social science methods, does not submit his research for peer review, and relies largely on open-source materials whose authenticity is difficult to verify.

Shideler called Signal a “hallmark of antifa” before adding that he uses it himself.

Shideler called Signal a “hallmark of antifa” before adding that he uses it himself.

Shideler called Signal a “hallmark of antifa” before adding that he uses it himself.

The antifa trial is Shideler’s first time testifying as an expert witness in a trial, he said. One defense lawyer noted that Shideler was invited to testify about antifa before the Senate Judiciary Committee in October and asked whether his courtroom appearance this week would provide a further boost to his career.

“I guess it will depend how it goes,” he said.

His testimony is set to continue Tuesday.

IT’S EVEN WORSE THAN WE THOUGHT.

What we’re seeing right now from Donald Trump is a full-on authoritarian takeover of the U.S. government. 

This is not hyperbole.

Court orders are being ignored. MAGA loyalists have been put in charge of the military and federal law enforcement agencies. The Department of Government Efficiency has stripped Congress of its power of the purse. News outlets that challenge Trump have been banished or put under investigation.

Yet far too many are still covering Trump’s assault on democracy like politics as usual, with flattering headlines describing Trump as “unconventional,” “testing the boundaries,” and “aggressively flexing power.” 

The Intercept has long covered authoritarian governments, billionaire oligarchs, and backsliding democracies around the world. We understand the challenge we face in Trump and the vital importance of press freedom in defending democracy.

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IT’S BEEN A DEVASTATING year for journalism — the worst in modern U.S. history.

We have a president with utter contempt for truth aggressively using the government’s full powers to dismantle the free press. Corporate news outlets have cowered, becoming accessories in Trump’s project to create a post-truth America. Right-wing billionaires have pounced, buying up media organizations and rebuilding the information environment to their liking.

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I’M BEN MUESSIG, The Intercept’s editor-in-chief. It’s been a devastating year for journalism — the worst in modern U.S. history.

We have a president with utter contempt for truth aggressively using the government’s full powers to dismantle the free press. Corporate news outlets have cowered, becoming accessories in Trump’s project to create a post-truth America. Right-wing billionaires have pounced, buying up media organizations and rebuilding the information environment to their liking.

In this most perilous moment for democracy, The Intercept is fighting back. But to do so effectively, we need to grow.

That’s where you come in. Will you help us expand our reporting capacity in time to hit the ground running in 2026?

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Trump Calls His Enemies Terrorists. Does That Mean He Can Just Kill Them?

Longtime Paid FBI Informant Was Instrumental in Terror Case Against “Turtle Island Liberation Front”

“I’m Not Fleeing” — Alleged Antifa Cell Member Says He Was Accidentally Released From Jail

The Feds Want to Make It Illegal to Even Possess an Anarchist Zine

U.S. Military Refuses to Endorse Trump Claim That Iran Bombed Girls’ School

“It would be inappropriate to comment given the incident is under investigation,” CENTCOM told The Intercept.

Israel Destroyed Gaza’s Roads and Transit. Now, We Walk Everywhere.

Israeli bombing left cars in Gaza immobile and roads impassable. The assault on Iran has only spiked prices and worsened conditions.

OpenAI on Surveillance and Autonomous Killings: You’re Going to Have to Trust Us

OpenAI says Americans shouldn’t worry about the ethics of its new Pentagon contract. You’ll have to take their word for it (and Pete Hegseth’s).

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